Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart was the pseudonym of Don Glen Vliet (1941-2010) during his musical career, which lasted from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Born in California on 15 January 1941, he later pursued a career as a painter, under his "real name", Don Van Vliet.

His musical style is a kind of mixture of blues and surrealism. His visual sense extended to the look of his band, as can be seen in the video of "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby".

With vocal mannerisms showing the avowed influence of Howlin' Wolf, he also played bluesy harmonica and bizarre soprano saxophone, but the jagged and complex rhythmic arrangements in which he drilled his band are his most notable musical contribution.

He died of multiple sclerosis on 17 December 2010.

Attribution

Some content on this page may previously have appeared on Wikipedia.